


Knowing

by r_holland



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Hogwarts Era, Mutual Pining, but we love them, maurauders, sirius is matchmaker, these two are oblivious idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 07:13:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11573037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/r_holland/pseuds/r_holland
Summary: Lily knew that James was a prat. She knew he was cocky and annoying and liked to ruffle his hair far too much for it to be normal. She knew that he loved breaking rules and hated peace ("boredom") and disturbed the common room just for the hell of it. She knew he was the one who had transfigured her toothbrush into a rubber chicken for no apparent reason. He was a total, complete, annoying prat.But that's not all there was to the story.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In which James and Lily are oblivious and Sirius really wants to win a bet





	Knowing

Lily knew that James was a prat. She knew he was cocky and annoying and liked to ruffle his hair far too much for it to be normal. She knew that he loved breaking rules and hated peace (" _boredom_ ") and disturbed the common room just for the hell of it. She knew he was the one who had transfigured her toothbrush into a rubber chicken for no apparent reason. He was a show-off who took the phrase "love yourself" to a new level and he would trek mud into the common room just so he could show everyone how good he looked in his Quidditch robes, hair windswept and eyes alive. See, Lily Evans _knew_ James Potter was a prat. 

But that's just not all there was to the story. 

Lily tries to push aside the other side of her brain, she really did, but it was no use. It was no bloody use because Lily also knew that James was kind. She knew that when she had hardly slept for three days and the stress of NEWTS was driving her crazy, James would bring her tea and make her laugh. She knew that he would pry the book from her fingers and talk her into sleep. He would make sure all the Head Girl duties she was supposed to be doing were looked after, despite his own half of the duties and his classes and Quidditch. She knew that he was  _fun_ , in a way she never failed to appreciate. No matter what was happening in her life, or in his, he could make her laugh. She knew that rules shouldn't always be followed to the letter, and that he was part of the reason that she'd been able to learn that, over the years. She knew that his showing off was mostly an act, and that behind the laughs and the jokes he cared deeper than anyone she knew. He was brave, and she knew that he would do anything to protect the people that he loved. (It really didn't help that her breath caught a little when he waltzed into the common room, looking windswept and sweaty in those perfectly fitting Quidditch robes. It didn't help that she sometimes caught herself staring as he ran his hand through his perfectly messy hair, and she knew that she didn't really regret spilling pumpkin juice all over his shirt that one time, because her stomach had done funny things once he'd had to remove it.) In the end, although she had tried very hard to fight it, she really had, Lily Evans knew one other thing about James Potter. She was in love with him. The issue was, she didn't know if he loved  _her_ anymore. 

* * *

If James Potter knew one thing about his last year at Hogwarts, it was that he wasn't going to fuck things up with Lily. He'd realized, over the summer, while they'd been corresponding, that having Lily permanently as a friend was better than nothing. He'd also realized that that wasn't going to happen if he kept embarrassing himself by asking her out,  _again_. She wasn't interested. Fine. Okay. Sure, sometimes, he caught himself smiling like an idiot when she hurled herself onto his bed and ranted about homework, and sure, the one time she'd sat on his lap while they'd all sat around the fire and there were no empty chairs, he'd nearly had a heart attack. ("There was physical pain," he'd told Sirius after the fact. Sirius had called him an over-dramatic prat, so James had thrown a pillow at his head.) He knew that she was one of the sweetest and kind-hearted people he'd ever met, and he knew that she purposefully threw teasing remarks at him when he was pacing and couldn't get out of his head because she knew it helped snap him out of it. James couldn't help staring sometimes, when she combed her hair out of her face absentmindedly with her fingers as she read, and fine, he worried about her when she wasn't sleeping and the stress lines in her forehead contrasted with the bags under her eyes. But they were friends. He worried about his other friends too. Just the other day, he'd done Wormtail's Charms paper, because he was  _worried_ that he was going to absolutely flunk it. But anyways, he wasn't going to wreck his friendship with Lily because of something dumb like  _love._ He wasn't stupid. Still, he knew he remembered her favourite songs and he loved how fiercely angry she got when someone crossed her, and he told her stupid jokes to make her smile when she was stressed (even if Sirius groaned and threatened to curse his mouth shut if he told another.) But they were friends. Finally. That's what friends did, right?

* * *

Sirius Black knew one thing -he was going to lose his mind very,  _very_ soon, and unless he did something drastic, he was also going to lose a bet. Look, Prongs and Evans were two of the most ridiculously oblivious people in the damned castle, but he wasn't going to lose his easily-earned money to Moony and  _Wormtail_ because of their foolishness, for Godric's sake. The two of them were smitten -utterly besotted -but James was being his annoying noble self, and Lily was afraid that now that he'd stopped pursuing her, it meant he'd lost interest. (Lily had confessed her side of things to Sirius one night when the two of them had stayed up late with Firewhisky while everyone else was asleep. She'd made him promise not to tell, and even though she had no memory of the event, Remus had forbidden him to tell James, as it would swing the bet wildly in his favour.) Still, it was crazily obvious to everyone else who had ever been in the same bloody room as them that they were both pining pathetically. James smiled like an idiot when she laughed at one of his awful dad-jokes. Evans stared at him sometimes when he was studying, with a dumb-looking affectionate look on her face. Prongs looked over her bloody Transfiguration papers without much protest or bargaining, and he was always humming her favourite songs under his breath without even realizing it. He offered up his coat when it was cold, and bickered with her about the best chair in the common room and stared at her hair when he thought no one was paying attention. Evans visited him for hours every time he wound up in the hospital wing, bantering with him playfully even though the worry lines on her face didn't disappear until Madam Pomfrey bustled around and told them how easy it would be to fix. She brewed him potions when he was sick and knew all of the players on his favourite Quidditch team and  _sometimes,_ Sirius caught her  _totally_ checking Prongs out. Especially when he was fresh back from practice. There was lip biting and everything. But did either of them notice these things? Of course not.

So Sirius knew that it was time to start plotting. 

* * *

James was going to kill Sirius. Like, cold-blooded murder. Pads had told him to please meet him at the top of the Astronomy tower after his rounds, because he had a genius idea to piss off Snivellus that he wanted to demonstrate. But James had been standing there for fifteen minutes already, in the freezing cold, and there was no sign of the git. James figured he would give him five more minutes, and if Padfoot didn't show up, he was going to charm his hair orange. He leaned on the railing, looking down at the grounds and smiled to himself. He really loved the view from up here. It never seemed to get old -and it was even more fantastic on a clear night like this one. Maybe he would only spell Sirius' hair a navy blue. He could work with that. Would probably say it looked dashing. James smiled again and stared out into the moonlight, lost in his thoughts, just for a moment. 

* * *

Lily was going to kill Sirius Black. She made the trek all the way up to the Astronomy tower with the food from the kitchens he had  _begged_ her to get. She  _finally_ looked through the door, all ready to berate Black for giving her this bloody task -but he wasn't there. Instead, as she stepped out onto the tower to get a better look around, all she saw was an all too familiar frame, leaned up against the railing. The wind was pushing through his hair, and from this angle she could she that he was smiling to himself, and Lily's heart skipped a beat just at the sight of him. He must have heard her footsteps, because suddenly he spoke. 

"You'd better have a damn good excuse, Padfoot, or I'm going to -"

He broke off in surprise, having turned around to see, not Black, but Lily, standing there feeling a little lost with an armful of food. He gaped at her for a second, apparently at a loss for words. 

"He invited you too, did he?" She remarked dryly, and that's all it took to snap him out of it. James' face lit up and he grinned -Lily felt a little bit like she couldn't breathe. 

"Seems the git is blowing us off -rude, but I'll take it." His eyes fell on the basket of food, and he grinned wider still. "We'll just have to have fun without him."

Lily didn't notice the faint blush that rose to his cheeks as he said it. 

Maybe she wouldn't kill Sirius Black today after all.

* * *

Sirius never knew the full extent of what happened on the Astronomy tower that night, but he did know this -after that night, word spread quickly throughout the castle that James Potter and Lily Evans were finally dating. He also knew to claim his winnings quickly, before Moony or Wormtail realized that he had masterminded the whole thing. He revealed his genius plan only during his best man speech at the wedding, long after the money was put in his pocket. It was only James and Lily's insistence that Sirius' influence was "minor at most" (which, of course, was a definite lie. He knew that they knew it deep in their hearts) that he was able to escape Remus and Peter and their threats. As it is they made him pay for their drinks anytime they were together from that moment on. Still, somehow he knew it was worth it. Not for the money, though, he thought, as he watched James and Lily dance a silly waltz with laughter on their lips and love on their faces. 

* * *

As for James and Lily, well. They knew one thing for certain -though all the pain and suffering and uncertainty that a war brings. They knew that they had each other, to death did they part. They knew that they were in love, and that that was the strongest magic of them all. 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This has been my first published fic and I really hope you enjoyed!


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